Current Events > NHLCE - Stanley Cup Finals are Set! Edmonton Oilers vs. Florida Panthers

(+) Yeah! (+)

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The Stanley Cup Finals are set as we PLAY IT AGAIN SAM! The Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers polish off their Conference Finals in 5 games to put ANY question to bed about who the two best teams in the league are. Last year we went 7 games as each team took 3 in a row on their way to the Florida Panthers winning Game 7 in a bizarrely classic Stanley Cup.

Who ya got CE?!

Our first game is not until Wednesday, June 4th. Both teams get a lot of rest before the Finals.

Pretty sure the Oilers are going to annihilate the Panthers.

The went to seven games last year with a crippled Draisaitl, and Tkachuk's hurt this time around.

I expect Oilers in 5.

Panthers in 7

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By the way, there are a couple of great hockey meme reddit pages. We have a long time before the first game starts... I think we know what to do.

Holy hell, the Panthers have been in 3 straight finals and a Florida team has appeared in last 6 finals. What the hell is going on?

gotta be the oilers' year

Both teams playing clearly better than everyone else. Both teams crushed their conference finals opponents. Rematch from last year.

Skinner has admittedly been playing really well but I still feel like when the pressure is on and it matters Bobrovsky is the more dependable goalie. Despite the Oilers cruising in these playoffs except for the slow 2 game start vs the Kings I worry that their penalty kill has been lackluster this year compared to last year and they need to stay out of the box.

I want the Oilers to win and I legitimately think they can as long as they don't dig themselves a fucking 3 game hole like last year. I want McDavid and Draisaitl to break through but I expect this to be a dog fight.

My fear is the Panthers end up repeating but damn I want the Oilers to win.

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as a canadian i *want* the Oilers to win but i don't believe it will ever happen. but i'm a jaded piece of shit who does assume these are rigged somewhat for maximum viewership and profit-making

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Could be in sole possession of 3rd at the end of the Finals.

Man it hit me how long Ive been around, and have much hockey Ive witnessed knowing I watched almost the entire career of everyone on that list. The only exception is I dont really remember the 1979 season for Carbonneau and Messier. I remember bits and pieces of life in 1979 but dont remember sports.

My earliest sports memories start in 1980 and oddly enough a hockey moment. The miracle on ice US hockey over Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics in very early 1980.

So yeah I have watched the overall majority of all of these guys careers.

Hope we get to see McDavid raise the cup.

Fuck the Panthers - bunch of dirty cheap shot artists

I've been rooting against the Panthers all post season.

archizzy posted...

Man it hit me how long Ive been around, and have much hockey Ive witnessed knowing I watched almost the entire career of everyone on that list. The only exception is I dont really remember the 1979 season for Carbonneau and Messier. I remember bits and pieces of life in 1979 but dont remember sports.

My earliest sports memories start in 1980 and oddly enough a hockey moment. The miracle on ice US hockey over Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics in very early 1980.

So yeah I have watched the overall majority of all of these guys careers.

I was born in 84 and only really started to "pay attention" around like... 92-93? Guy I really have NO concept of but the rest I have a pretty decent memory of.

Jeff_AKA_Snoopy posted...

I was born in 84 and only really started to "pay attention" around like... 92-93? Guy I really have NO concept of but the rest I have a pretty decent memory of.

You missed out of the great run of the Oilers through the 80s after the end of the dynasty run from the New York Islanders. Those Oiler teams were stacked. Between the Oilers, the Canadians and even the Flames grabbing one my youth was dominated by Canada for a small stretch.

Yeah, looking back at it now it is insane to look at it for sure.

I became a fan of the Canucks due to Pavel Bure mostly, but that entire like mid-90's Canucks team was so damn fun. Pavel Bure was Ovechkin before Ovi was around.

I was born in 1988 and didn't really know what hockey was until NHL 94 on Genesis.

Too young to care or remember the 90's cup runs for the Pens, watched the shitty in between time too, but got to grow up with the Crosby era and became quite the die-hard fan.

I'll probably never enjoy the team as much as I did the years between 2006-2020. Being the same age as the core made them extremely relatable throughout their careers.

Sadly I actually didn't renew my season tickets for next year, but I think that's a net positive. I was feeling so guilty not going to games I had tickets to it ended up with me watching less games this year. "Why am I watching at home I could have been there" kinda shit. Also the number of tickets that were WAY cheaper than I paid the day of on second hand markets really hurt lol. The last game with Flower was maybe the most expensive ticket I had all season (if I resold), and I went to it. =P

The Panthers are my home team (and one of my earliest childhood sports memories was the original "year of the rat" in 1996) so I'm obviously cheering for them. That being said, I would still be very happy if Edmonton won and broke the Canada drought. I always love to see an underdog win, even if they beat my home team to do it. No matter who wins this series, I'm happy.

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While i would have preferred the leafs to beat Florida and be in their place for an all Canadian Stanley cup finals.. It wasn't meant to be so i will support Edmonton

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Any team that willingly adds Brad Marchand to their roster deserves to lose.

Storm_Shadow posted...

Any team that willingly adds Brad Marchand to their roster deserves to lose.

If we want to play that game, the Oilers added the GM who knowingly covered up sexual abuse by a staff member.

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The Canadian Cup drought has to end eventually but man would it be funny if it still continues after this series.

Anything is possible but the Oilers should be a relatively easy favorite..

Jeff_AKA_Snoopy posted...

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For me, it's not about the wait. I wish it was tonight or Thursday mostly so it didn't overlap with AEW Dynamite.

Good luck Oilers because the league is going to do everything it can to make sure you lose

El_Marsh posted...

The Canadian Cup drought has to end eventually but man would it be funny if it still continues after this series.

Anything is possible but the Oilers should be a relatively easy favorite..

Until Bennett throws a dirty hit on McDavid and knocks him out of the series

Completely unlikeable team outside of Barkov

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Hockey TONIGHT baby!!!!

El_Marsh posted...

The Canadian Cup drought has to end eventually but man would it be funny if it still continues after this series.

Anything is possible but the Oilers should be a relatively easy favorite..

Panthers have been in the finals 3 years in a row, are defending champs who beat the Oilers last year and I'd rather have Bobrovsky over Skinner even though Skinner has had a nice run thus far.

In no way can anyone that follows hockey really say Oilers should be a "relatively easy favorite" and act like if they don't win it is some huge choke job. Florida is legit.

El_Marsh posted...

I'm sorry if you were somehow offended by opinion to the point that you felt it necessary to "correct" me, but I know all about the Florida Panthers, fuck you very much.

I still think Edmonton at their best is better than Florida at their best. Disagree with it or whatever but don't fucking disrespect me like I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.

I wasn't offended at all but when you say something like they are "relatively easy favorites" that seems like hyperbole to me. It was a simple pushback discussion. Disrespecting you? lol get real.

Damn, the Oilers scored fast to start us off. Come on, Panthers!

Draisaitl with the nice start. Lets keep it up.

Something else cool I saw today:

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/panthers-are-about-to-set-the-nhl-mark-for-games-played-in-a-3-year-span-3/

Game 2 of these Stanley Cup finals will be the 310th game that the Florida Panthers have played across the past 3 seasons, which will break the NHL record held by the Dallas Stars (in the 97-98 through 99-00 seasons) and the Detroit Red Wings (in the 06-07 through 08-09 seasons) for the most games played by one team across a 3 season span. On top of that, both Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling have played in 303 (now 304 as of tonight) of those games, so they could potentially tie or break the NHL record held by Phil Kessel (who played in 307 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 15-16 through 17-18 seasons) for the most games played by one player across a 3 season span.

Even if they end up losing this series, this is a really cool piece of history for this Panthers team.

I'm at work but YAY Oilers!!!!

Argh, 1-1

Lame

Sigh, 2-1 Panthers. I was worried about the Oilers shit penalty kill this playoffs.

No! 2-1 Panthers

I said it last round and I'll say it again: when the Panthers score, they score in bunches.

Not the way I wanted the 2nd period to start. Glad to see Skinner coming into full form at the right time. Sigh.

Well at least they cut it to 1 right away.

C'mon Oilers, you can do this!

There we fucking go!!!! Tie game!!

Damn.

That's what I'm talking about.

Man I thought McDavid had that on the flip. So close.

Been an excellent game since I've been watching.

We are pretty much down to the point where it feels like the next goal wins it despite it not being in actual OT quite yet.